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Monday, August 27, 2012

Artist Sue Austin is preparing to
show off a prototype self-propelled underwater wheelchair to the public.

Ms Austin, who has been a wheelchair user since 1996, developed the chair
with help from dive experts and academics.

The model is powered by two dive propulsion vehicles and steered with a
bespoke fin and foot-operated acrylic strip.

She is staging a performance with it in a swimming pool in Weymouth this
week.

"Creating the Spectacle" forms part of the Cultural Olympiad
celebrations.

Ms Austin, from north Devon, says she first had the idea after learning to
scuba dive in 2005.

"When we started talking to people about it, engineers were saying it
wouldn't work, the wheelchair would go into a spin, it was not designed to go
through water - but I was sure it would," she told the BBC.

It was built with funding from the Arts Council's Impact Scheme.

Finding a suitable dive propulsion vehicle to propel the chair was initially
difficult because most propeller models were designed to be hand-held and Ms
Austin lacked the strength to hold on to them.

Eventually she trialled a model that was designed for divers with
disabilities - and then added two to the wheelchair.

Ms Austin bought an NHS wheelchair for the project and spent months with her
team perfecting its buoyancy. She initially designed flotation aids, but in the
end found that simple swimming floats worked better.

"If you just put a thruster under the chair all the thrust is below the
centre of gravity so you rotate," she said. "It was certainly more more
acrobatic than I anticipated."

She modified the heel plates so that they formed fins at the backs of her
heels and re-drilled the rubber straps to attach her legs to the acrylic "wings"
she needed to steer the vehicle.

The addition of the second thruster and fin meant that the wings were no
longer practical but she kept them for aesthetic reasons.

The wheelchair also required a more robust seat to handle the pressure placed
upon it during a performance.

"I would love to create a version with hand controls - but I need my arms to
be free for the performance," said Ms Austin.

The wheelchair, which had patents pending and was as yet unnamed, was already
in demand, she said.
"We've had PADI [Professional Association of Diving Instructors] course
directors and very experienced divers saying they would pay to hire it," she
said.

"The Oceanography department at the University of Plymouth, where I did a BA
[bachelor of arts degree] in performing art, said it would make their courses
accessible to students with disabilities."

There is one problem with the wheelchair however - the frame is beginning to
rust. Ms Austin says that ideally the next model should be made of titanium.

About Me

I am full-time Mass Communication faculty at Towson University in Maryland and adjunct faculty in the City University of New York (CUNY) Master's in Disability Studies program.
I research media and disability issues and wrote a 2010 book on the subject: Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media, published by Advocado Press.
The media have real power to define what the public knows about disability and that's what I research.